Congrats to Uhaina Joly, who was just crowned Basque Coast Surf Champ 2013 – at only 13 years! But when your mum is a former pro and passionate surfer herself, that’s probably no massive surprise but just the beginning, so here’s a little intro – watch out for this miss!! And enjoy the gallery with beautiful shots of Eric Malherbe.

My name is Uhaina and I’ve been surfing since I started walking basically, but I really start to surf when I was ten years old.
My mum, Emmanuelle Joly, is an ex surf champion, which makes it a lot more easy for me to train and to be in the right spot. She takes me surfing every day when there are waves and we already did a lot of travelling as well, to Hawaii, Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Mexico, Philippines, Morocco, and the Canary Island…
I’m in the Sportive Section in school, where we practice twice a week, and I also train with my surf club the BASCS Wednesday and Saturday. I also do surf life saving in a Biarritz club. It’s great training for surfing.
One day I would like to be a professional surfer like Sally, Alana or Pauline… And to achieve that, I surf a lot, even when the conditions and weather are really bad. Sometimes it’s very hard to surf when it’s cold, raining, windy and messy. When I have a lot of homework that means pretty much no time for myself, plus I miss my friends when we’re travelling, but luckily there is internet and if I will success my dream, I know that pro surfer is the life I want.